Now that Ramadhan (the fasting month) is approaching many corporations, statutory bodies and others will be busy arranging breaking fast sessions in five-star hotels and posh restaurants for their clients and employees. It looks like a normal thing to do – what’s wrong in getting a 100, maybe 200, people to break fast together. But let’s examine the practice more closely.

The cost per head is RM100 – RM120. For 200 persons that comes to RM20,000 to RM24,000. Not an amount to shout about for a big corporation. What is served for that amount? Trays and trays of mostly sweet, delicious fare and fruits with pots and pots of chicken, mutton, beef, fish, - and not to forget jugs and jugs of sweetened water in different colours. And yes, of course, dates and a sweet porridge to remind one that the occasion is breaking fast.

To eat as much as one can take in after a day of food deprivation will naturally require time - a leisurely one hour? As one can’t move easily after all that tucking in, so one has to rest - another half an hour? The drive back home may take half an hour to an hour and a half depending on where one stays.

All said, the busy executive is safely back home at 10 - 10.30pm. With all these activities, there really is no time for terawih prayers (special prayers during Ramadhan) or the other recommended things one does during Ramadhan, is there? (Or as we Malaysians would say, ‘where got time?’).

This process may be repeated several times during the month, the frequency depending on the importance of the individual concerned. How did his wife and children break fast? He probably would not know. And if the wife also attends the same or other such functions, the children will probably break fast with the maid.

Fasting month or ‘feasting month? Is all this in the spirit of Ramadhan? Ramadhan is a month of abstinence when one eats little (although plenty may be available) and spends more time on prayers, reading and studying the Qur’an and so on.

All that is needed to break fast are some dates, a bowl of rice or rice porridge (which is easily digestible) and a fruit or two. But at these break fast sessions the attendees do exactly the opposite; they tend to eat more (a lot more) than on normal days and gain weight!

Sweet items are heavily consumed, the dangers of diabetes notwithstanding. The true meaning and purpose of fasting is lost in the process.

Ramadhan is also a time for family togetherness – where families share in the joy of breaking fast and praying together and little boys follow the fathers to the mosque for tarawih prayers.

The culture of these buka puasa parties turns the fasting month into a feasting month. They subvert the real spirit of fasting and the benefits it should bring to individuals, families and the Muslim ummah .

After the fasting month, of course, come the grand corporate Hari Raya open house parties galore where hundreds of thousands of ringgit are spent by each corporation to feast a lot of well-to-do people under the guise of ‘open houses’. Open houses have now become an integral part of a unique Malaysian culture and that is an aspect that we Malaysians should preserve.

But let us keep it as ‘open houses’ where we open up our houses for our neighbours, relatives and others for them to come and share the joy of the occasion with us, be it Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Christmas or others.

But the corporate functions are really ‘open hotels’. I ask, why should the corporations and other bodies spend all that money on these parties? Their customers and employees will understand and probably appreciate it more if these vast sums of money are spent on the poor and indigent. Buy them new clothes, provisions, repair a leaking roof, help pay their medical bills, donate dialysis machines - or fulfill any of the thousand and one other needs of these people.

They will remember such help for the rest of their lives. That is what Islam encourages us to do, especially during Ramadhan. The corporations may say that they are already doing these things under their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.

That may be true but are there not so many other causes that cry out for help, if one only cares to see? Wouldn’t all these good money be better spent on such worthy causes than on wasteful and immediately forgotten ‘buka puasa parties’ and open hotels?